On a road trip full of sweet tea, biscuits and gravy, the Republican presidential hopeful tried hard to prove his bonafides in Dixie.Published OnAug. 12, 2015CreditImage by Danny Johnston/Associated Press

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — The sweet tea was mostly gone, the homemade coffee cakes picked over by the more than 2,000 who showed up here to hear Senator Ted Cruz deliver a blistering indictment of the direction the country is headed in and of the man who is now leading it.

“You know, in 2013, the Obama administration released to the public 104,000 criminal illegal aliens,” Mr. Cruz told the people gathered here in a converted factory turned concert space at midday on Monday. Among them, he said, were “murderers,” “rapists” and “drunk drivers.”

This was a new addition to Mr. Cruz’s stump speech.

Once the most outspoken conservative when it came to illegal immigration — his appeals to voters back in March included pledges to “secure the border” and a joke about sending 90,000 Internal Revenue Service agents to help accomplish that goal — Mr. Cruz has been overshadowed of late, along with most of his rivals, by Donald J. Trump, whose suggestion that Mexico was sending rapists and murderers across the border drew widespread condemnation but also a fervent following in some quarters.

After a speech in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Mr. Cruz was asked about what a local reporter called the “T-word.”

Mr. Cruz heaved a brief sigh, before saying, as he has often, that he appreciated the attention that Mr. Trump had brought to the race, including last week’s debate. But a sliver of frustration slipped out.

This election is not about “a soap opera of personalities,” Mr. Cruz said, his only complaint.

If Mr. Trump has commandeered much of the attention in the Republican primary contest, Mr. Cruz’s seven-day, seven-state swing through the Southeast was a pointed effort to grab whatever limelight he could have to himself. The zigzagging bus tour, which ends Thursday in Tulsa, Okla., with a “This Is Cruz Country” rally, has drawn consistently enthusiastic crowds in the hundreds, and sometimes thousands, as Mr. Cruz tries to establish a foothold in states where a large number of delegates are expected to be up for grabs on March 1, Super Tuesday.

That so-called S.E.C. primary — a reference to the Southeastern Conference of college sports — had Mr. Cruz flattering his audience with tributes to Southern culture and to the region’s growing political importance.

“Arkansas is going to play a critical role,” Mr. Cruz told a crowd outside Republican headquarters on Wednesday in Little Rock — a version of a line he delivered to groups in Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama. He made sure to note that he was competing earnestly in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, too. “But 10 days later, boom, it’s Super Tuesday,” he said.

Overflow crowds were met with overflowing tables: baskets of biscuits and gravy at Graceworks Church in Chattanooga, Tenn., pulled pork at a fairgrounds in Jackson, Tenn. Brown sugar meatballs kept a waiting crowd content in Murfreesboro while Mr. Cruz detoured to the memorial to Marines killed last month in Chattanooga. And sweet tea flowed at every stop.

“Y’all are making it real hard to talk with those onion rings,” Mr. Cruz told a crowd at a restaurant in Olive Branch, Miss. “Is there any food on earth that isn’t better deep fried?”

Campaigning in the Southeast left Mr. Cruz — who as the first declared candidate briefly had the entire race to himself earlier this year — the only contender plying the highways from South Carolina to Oklahoma.

He adjusted his stump speech, highlighting faith and religion more than usual. At Graceworks Church, where Mr. Cruz delivered his remarks from the altar under a giant cross, he pledged to order a Justice Department investigation into Planned Parenthood and to defend those who he says are unfairly made to break with their religious beliefs over issues like contraception and prayer in public.

“Persecution of religious liberty ends today,” he said to a roar of applause.

In Mississippi, Mr. Cruz was accompanied by Chris McDaniel, the Tea Party state senator who nearly unseated Senator Thad Cochran in a contentious primary last year. Mr. Cruz hopes to turn many of Mr. McDaniel’s voters into Cruz volunteers.

Some in the crowd in Tupelo were clutching “Cruz 2016” signs in one hand and red “Vote McDaniel” signs in the other.

“Prior to this, I was leaning towards Cruz,” said George Bogardus, 72, from nearby Saltillo, Miss., who was also clutching signs supporting both men. “But Mr. McDaniel cemented it.”

In Arkansas, as at other points along the way, Mr. Cruz’s faith-filled message seemed to resonate.

“He’s a Christian, and I’m a true Christian,” said Hazel Bragg, who showed up to hear Mr. Cruz outside the Little Rock party headquarters. “And I believe if he goes God’s way, we can’t go wrong with that.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Evoking Trump, Cruz Grabs for the Limelight During Southern Tour. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe